Reuss Musical Instruments FZ-01 Kleiner Scheisskerl

Reuss Musical Instruments

The Reuss FZ-01 'Kleiner Scheisskerl' is a clone of the original 1962 Gibson Maestro FZ-1 circuit and features real new old stock 2N270 germanium transistors.

The Kleiner Scheisskerl is a quirky but cool and different sounding fuzz. The voice is a bit 'nasal' with a pronounced upper midrange and a 'loose' and farting-out low-end. It's quite soft and 'organic' sounding and very responsive. The FZ-01 has a weird ring-modulating effect on the high strings which can almost cancel the high string signal.

Like the vintage pedals, the 'Kleiner Scheisskerl' is running on 3 volts (2xAAA batteries) and features 'positive ground'. This means you can not use it with an external power supply. Only batteries.

The original 'Kleiner Scheisskerl' was a custom job for top-producer Michael Beinhorn (Hole, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson, Mew etc.) who came up with the idea for the font as well as the name (which is German and means something like 'Little Bastard').